This May marks 10 whole years since we launched The Circus Diaries with our first ever blog post. To celebrate, we’re partnering with doctoral students from Cardiff University to host our first public event! The one-day symposium will be held on May 26th 2023 at the NoFit State Community Circus venue in Cardiff. It will explore the emerging cultural phenomena of metamodernism, through and in circus. Haven’t heard of metamodernism yet? Here’s your chance to find out more!
Free tickets are available via EventBrite by clicking This Link. Documentation following the event will be shared on this site, so watch this space!
Here is the event blurb:
Circus hit the peak of public recognition in the modernist era of the twentieth century. Since the 1990s, experiments in ‘contemporary circus’ have embraced the postmodern. Some cultural theorists now describe our era as ‘metamodern’, bringing together elements of thought and feeling from both the previous zeitgeists. Important aspects of metamodernism include post-irony, reappreciation of craft, reconstruction of authenticity and a renewed sense of spirituality (Van den Akker, Gibbons & Vermeulen 2017).
Inspired by this relatively uncharted territory, we present: The Metamodern Circus. This festival brings together scholars of metamodern phenomena and circus practitioners to explore how the two perspectives intersect. We invite anyone with an interest in arts, culture and philosophy to join us in deepening our understanding of the times we’re living in. The day will include keynote talks, performance and roundtable discussions, as well as some fun activities to keep us in the spirit of the event. The final part of the day is dedicated to a built-in workshop to develop a collaborative document that reflects on our learning and questioning from the day, which will be published and shared with our wider communities of practice and scholarship.
Sign up to all three sessions, or pick and mix to suit you!
When? Friday 26th May 2023.
Where? NoFit State Community Circus, Cardiff (UK).
All welcome! The event will be presented in English.
Funded by the AHRC South West and Wales Doctoral Training Programme, the ESRC Wales Doctoral Training Programme, and the Doctoral Academy of Cardiff University. In partnership with The Circus Diaries.
